Balanced car-wheel



(No Model.)

P. H. GRIFFIN. BALANCED GAR WHEEL. No. 427,415. Patented May 6, 1890.

Witnessesy i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PATRICK HENRY GRIFFIN, OF BUFFALO, NEWV YORK.

BALANCED CAR-WHEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 427,415, dated May 6, 1890.

Application filed February 28, 1890. Serial No. 342,043. (No model.)

and useful Improvements on Balanced Car- Wheels; and I do hereby declare that the following description of my said invention, taken in connection with the accompanying sheet of drawings, forms a full, clear, and exact specification, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has general reference to balancing devices for car-wheels; and it consists, essentially, in the novel and peculiar combination of parts and details of construction, as hereinafter first fully set forth and described, and then pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings already mentioned, which serve to illustrate my said invention more fully, Figure 1 is a plan of a car-wheel constructed in accordance with my said invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional elevation of the same in line as x of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 1s a rear v1ew.

Like parts are designated by corresponding letters of reference in all the figures.

The object of this invention is the production of an improved device for attaching balancing-weights to car-wheels, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

This car-wheel A is constructed with a series of semi-spherical or similarly-shaped bosses or protuberances B, projecting from either the front orrear plane of the plate of the wheel, said protuberances being disposed in a circle around the axis of the wheel,.as clearly illustrated in Fig. 1. In the center of these bosses or protuberances are formed recesses b, cored therein by ordinary processes of foundry practice, said recesses having a taper inwardly, as shown in Fig. 2, for the purpose hereinafter set forth. Upon one or more of these bosses or protuberances are placed balancing-weights 0, consisting of a suitablyshaped casting having in its under side a recess fitting the said bosses and an aperture registering with said recess, so that 'a rivet, screw-bolt, or other suitable fastening may be passed through said aperture and into said recess in the boss to hold said weight securely in position. These weights 0 are made of different sizes to adapt them to the various requirements, each having cast upon 1t a figure or numeral indicating its actual weight,

so that after the wheel has been tested for balance in a suitable machine designed for this purpose, (one of which has recently been patented by me,) and the exact position where, as well as the amount which, the wheel is out of balance has been ascertained, nothing remains to be done but to select the proper weight and attach it to the respective boss,

(or bosses, if more than one of such Weights are used,) when the wheel will be found to be in practical balance.

To fasten the weights, preference is given to a rivet c, which, being heated, is inserted into the recess in the boss B, and then driven home, when its end will upset and fill the tapering recess, and thereby securely retain the weight in its proper position.

If desired, a stud-bolt may either be cast into the protuberances in the process of casting or screwed therein, and the weight secured thereto by riveting or a nut; or a tap-bolt may be used for this purpose, although in practice it will be found that these devices may not answer the purpose as well as the rivets, owing to the increased cost of manufacture and their liability to accidents. place to locate these balancing-weights is on the back of the plate between the ribs and arms thereof. Such wheels may be balanced and the balancing-blocks more securely held in position if made to conform in shape to that or the said plate and ribs, whereby the blocks are less liable to displacement in service, and would not so readily attract attention.

In car-wheels it is essential that no holes puncture the plate, since these would form starting-points for defects caused by the continuous expansion and contraction of the wheel produced by the application of the brakes, and the heat thereby generated. This objection is entirely met by my device, since the recesses in the protuberances do not reach beyond the plane of the plate, and add to rat-her than detract from the strength of the wheel.

The protuberances and their recesses are readily produced in the process of'casting, so

A Very desirable that a Wheel, after it leaves the foundry, possesses all the necessary means for attaching the balancing-blocks without the addition of machine-labor.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent of the United States 1. A railway-car wheel having a solid plate provided with a series of concentrically-arranged protuberances having recesses, the bottoms of which do not project beyond the plane of the plate, said recesses being adapted to receive a fastening for balancing-weights as and for the object set forth.

2. A ear-Wheel having projecting bosses on 

